Nutritional experts suggest that a healthful diet should contain low amounts of fat, low cholesterol, high amounts of complex carbohydrates and high amounts of fiber. Among grains, oat and rice contain relatively significant amounts of protein and some fat, but the primary solid component of these grains is starch, fiber and other complex carbohydrates. The bran component of oat and rice is particularly high in dietary fiber containing both soluble and insoluble forms. Bran has long been recognized for its digestive benefits. More recently the soluble fiber component of oat and rice bran has been reported to help reduce serum cholesterol levels which may have a beneficial health effect.
The present invention affords a new way to deliver the healthful benefits of oat and rice grains. The invention comprises a complex carbohydrate-based, frozen dessert composition made with oat or rice grain-derived solids including the bran of the grain and a method for its preparation. Depending on the method of preparation, the invention can have either a sorbet-like or an ice cream-like texture. It can be either dairy or non-dairy and still provide the healthful benefits of bran referred to above.
Imitation ice creams have been developed, both for the purpose of eliminating dairy components that cause allergic or intolerance reactions, and to eliminate dairy fat and cholesterol. Examples of such dairy products include U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,355,300 and 3,702,768. Examples of such non-dairy products include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,069,561 and 4,643,906. These are all fat- and/or protein-based frozen food products. They all require added emulsifiers and/or stabilizers. They have reduced or eliminated dairy fat and cholesterol, but most use saturated vegetable fats and in some cases, eggs, all of which may not be desirable components of a healthy diet.
Starch, in the form of potato flakes, is used as a sweetener in a commercial ice cream product marketed by Al & Reed's Dairy in Idaho Falls, Id. This also is a dairy-fat based product, has little, if any, soluble fiber and requires added stabilizers in the form of vegetable gums.
A fruit-puree-based non-dairy frozen dessert is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,368,211. In addition to the fruit-puree, the product requires the addition of a whipping agent, a bodying agent, a stabilizer and an edible fatty triglyceride, in order to make the product organoleptically acceptable.
The inventors of the present invention have made the surprising discovery that the various components of the grain and in particular the polysaccharide gums that make up the water-soluble dietary fiber components of the bran of oat and rice, not only increase the health benefits of the product, but contribute significantly to the body, texture and stability of the product. Thus, if an oat- or rice-based ice-cream-like frozen food is prepared using the method described herein, the need to add whipping agents, bodying agents or stabilizers, which are often artificial and contain unhealthy chemicals, is eliminated or greatly minimized.
Thus, an object of the present invention is to produce an oat or rice-based frozen dessert which retains the nutritional and health benefits of oat or rice bran.
Another objective of the present invention is to produce a frozen dessert product which has a pleasant taste.
Yet another object of the present invention is to produce an oat or rice-based frozen dessert which uses natural ingredients, is easy to manufacture and provides a pleasing texture without the necessity of adding expensive and perhaps unhealthy additives.
To the accomplishment of the foregoing, the invention, then, comprises the features hereinafter fully described, and particularly pointed out in the claims, the following description setting forth in detail certain illustrative embodiments of the invention, these being indicative, however, of but a few of the various ways in which the principle of the invention may be employed.